7 His crime

He wanted to speak but not a single word came out of his mouth. After sometime,

"I...i....mes..sed it....all. it..end...ed be..cause....of me," he said with difficulty and Aastha wondered what he did that ended everything.

On her birthday, he had thought of confessing his love in front of her. They had already graduated from college. She had invited him to her birthday party and he was both nervous and excited. Somewhere he knew she too had feelings for him. He went to the party and searched for her everywhere but she was nowhere to be seen. He came into the garden and waited for her there and when he was about to go inside he heard clapping and people shouting. He went inside to find Adhir on his knees, proposing her for marriage and she had said yes.

He nearly fell to the ground seeing that scene. He slowly took a step back and then turned his back and closed his eyes. Tears fell down but he somehow controlled himself and went towards them to congratulate. The whole time he avoided her cause he was afraid she would find out how much it hurt him. They started to dance while he left. That night, he couldn't sleep. His heart was heavy and tears never stopped. He kept asking himself where he had gone wrong that he thought she too had feelings for him.

The thought of that almost brought tears in his eyes but he controlled himself.

He sighed "After our college was over Adhir and sati were getting married. He called me and asked me to meet him in the forest,"

"Adhir and Sati? Never saw that coming," Aastha thought. The question came on her mind if her father was so into turning into a vampire. Was he even ready to accept a wolf as his son-in-law?

That day he was confused about why he had called him in the forest and not in the cafe but anyway he went there. Adhir had a serious face and told him directly to stay away from sati. Adhir knew somehow that prayas has feelings for her and he didn't like it. Prayas tried to convince him that there was nothing between them rather than friendship but Adhir didn't hear a word.

"We got into argument and......we fought and accidentally...i....i....kill..ed...him," he said hating himself. Accidentally he had snapped Adhir's head in anger cause he took his and sati's friendship in a nasty way. If he hadn't killed Adhir then probably she would have been happily married and they would still have been friends.

Aastha eyes widened hearing the word killed.

"I... I won't be surprised....now if you start to hate me even more," he said.

But Aastha didn't like it cause she never hated him and she knew there was more to it.

After some time, Sati came and she saw blood in his hand and dead body beside him. She screamed and cried and everything was over right then, right there. He tried to go near her but couldn't. He knew she would never forgive him so without saying anything he left. He had thought that wolves would come for him but they didn't. Still, after all these years he doesn't know why they didn't come after him.

"I never hated you," Aastha said.

"I... Am....a.....murderer," he said.

Aastha couldn't say anything cause she didn't know what to say.

He again went back to the days. After some days prayas somehow dragged himself in front of her and told her it all happened accidentally and how sorry he was but Sati wouldn't even look at him. In the gap of 2-3 days, he would go to ask for forgiveness but she wouldn't even look or speak a word. The day came when he found out she had left the town. He followed her there and she finally told him that she can never forgive a murderer.

He then slowly opened his right fist and looked at his palm where there was a tattoo of an eye and a tear ready to fall. He sighed and then closed the palm.

Aastha looked at the tattoo and found it beautiful yet painful.

"Did her father approved of them getting married?" She asked and he nodded.

"He was more than happy. He was a fan of wolves too,"

"And...about his death?"

He nodded "Everyone knew about his.....death.... but still to this day I don't know why she never told anyone that I killed him," he said wondering why she didn't tell anyone about him killing Adhir.

"You know, you don't have to go there... To queens," she said and he slightly smiled.

"I must...I am a criminal and I should have been punished by death a long time ago." He half lied cause truth was that he had already got more than the punishment. Life itself was punishment for him. Staying so near to her but yet so far was a huge punishment for him. Now she was getting older and he knew even though staying away from her was a pain but watching her die would be unbearable to him. He had taken this decision by thinking a lot and this was the right punishment to do that would make everything right. He thought that this decision of him dying would somehow give justice to Adhir.

"But...." Aastha was about to speak but he cut her off.

"I won't change my mind. Go home and don't follow me," he said getting up and slowly taking steps to leave. He then turned to look at his niece.

"I know you have been stalking me since your birthday. My heart may be dead but my mind is not. I can still feel when people are near me," he said and like the wind, he left.

She stared at where he just became invisible.

"All this time, he knew we were stalking? And why didn't he said anything to us or me?..... Maybe he just ignored us knowing we will never find out anything," she thought.

She then looked towards the tree where sati was but she was gone too.

Prayas ran for the hills and sat in the middle of the forest and screamed his heart out. It was too much for him to bear. He was in pain, too much pain. He wanted to end this all and it was the last day around her. He cried his eyes out.

Aastha was still there in the park not being able to think what to do. She called her Wolfie and told everything.

"No, that can't be Aastha. A wolf doesn't die just because his neck is snapped or he bleeds. A wolf dies if his heart is taken out and not only that, the heart must be burned inside the earth." Denisha said.

"Burn inside the earth? How that is done?"

"You have to dig the land, burn it inside till it turns into ashes and then bury it. This is how a wolf dies,"

"What if we only take the heart out and leave it?"

"It can be put inside the body and wolf is back to life,"

"Never knew about that and you never told me,"

"You never asked," she shrugged.

She was right Aastha never asked. Hell, she never tried to know about her own kind.

"It means he is not dead," Aastha said.

"Yep, he is not. Probably living his life secretly but why would he do that?"

"I wish I knew that. You are sure, right? I mean mama said he killed him,"

"100% Ash and I am a wolf, remember?"

"We should tell him that he never committed any crime," Denisha said again when Aastha didn't say a word.

"Meet you in minutes," Aastha said and both hung their phone up.

Aastha eyes filled with tears knowing he punished himself for the crime he never committed but why would Adhir do this to him and the girl he was about to marry?

They then went to tell prayas about it but he was not in sati's house.

"He will come after some time," Aastha said.

"Let's go and tell your parents," denisha said and they both went towards her house and told Muna and Pratik everything.

Hope started to bloom in Muna's heart.

"We must stop him from going there, Aama," Aastha said.

"He must have already left," she said.

Prayas came to the sati's house to see her for the last time. His heart was heavy. She was lying peacefully on her bed. It was weird how he loved her still the same after all these years. Those four years with her in the college were the best years of his life. He sat beside her and started to caress her cheeks.

After she came to Butwal, one day he secretly broke into her house and found out she started to have nightmares and couldn't sleep at night and since then every day he came to her house after she fell asleep so he could be beside her and help her out of those nightmares. Thanks to him she never woke up at night screaming. It was rare that she wakes up when he was near. The one good thing about the nightmare was he gets to hear her calling his name and then it turns bad when she asks him why he killed Adhir.

"I am sorry for everything. I... This decision I am taking will give justice to both of you and I will be out of this pain forever. Be a little bit more strong and defeat your nightmares......." He said and kissed her forehead. He stood and looked at her for awhile remembering everything.

"I loved you, I love you and will always love you," he whispered and left.